


close your eyes and hold me tight

by kidwonder



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, also the grandmas are married, the doctor is a restless child and will not sleep ever, there's seven of them how could they not be gay?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 11:54:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16953537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kidwonder/pseuds/kidwonder
Summary: it's not easy being lonely, but in this universe no one's truly alone; or how the solitract became one of the doctor's favorites long before they met.





	close your eyes and hold me tight

**Author's Note:**

> i just couldn't resist writing something about the doctor and her favorite grandma. i don't have the physics knowledge to spin a whole background story on the solitract, but i hope you still enjoy.

“Honey, you’ll wake up your sisters.”, Granny Five said. 

“But I have the Buzzing in the brain, I can’t sleep!”, the doctor cried, bouncing up and down on the balls of their feet. The bedroom was lit only by the stars twinkling through the skylight. A warm breeze rushed in through the open windows, thin curtains floating in the wind. 

“Tell you what, I’ll tell you one more story and we’ll see if it helps, alright?”

The Doctor pouted. On their bed, the blankets were rumpled, pillows strewn all over and around the bed, several of them had been thrown towards the other end of the room. 

“Granny Two said she’d sing me a song today! She promised.” If they’d been a bit younger, the Doctor might have stomped their foot. 

“She’s still fixing her face sweet pea”, Granny Five gently whispered, glancing over to check if the other girls in the room were still asleep. Thankfully, there was only the rustling of fabric as one of them rolled over in her sleep. 

“Gran, I know she’s not a Zygon. You wouldn’t be married to a Zygon”, the Doctor whined, rolling their eyes. 

“Really? Are you sure?”, Granny Five teased. 

“Yes. I would know. I’m very smart.”

“You are very smart, but so am I.”

“Can you solve the Tarkarian riddle in twenty-four seconds?”

“I can do it in eight.”

“No! Teach me, teach me!”, the Doctor exclaimed, nearly jumping. “Please”, they added after a small pause. Their grandmother smiled.

“Another time. Now you need to go to bed.”

While already very tired from staying up well past their bedtime, the Doctor didn’t move from their spot, just crossed their arms in front of their chest defiantly. Granny Five sat down on the bed, patting the empty space beside her.

“How about I tell you a brand new story. One I’ve never told any of your sisters, until Granny Two is ready to come tuck you in?”

Across the room, one girl snored in her sleep, her hand resting on her sister’s back.  
The Doctor reluctantly crawled up on their bed, next to Granny Five, who smelled like dirt and flower stems, like she always did in the summer. Her grey hair was cropped short. On her wrist a metal bracelet changed color like a rainbow in the light of the stars twinkling through the window on the ceiling. 

“Look up. Can you see the constellations?” They nodded, rapidly scanning the sky for their favorite stars, giving a little nod acknowledgement to each of them.  
“In the universe there is light and there is dark. There is everything and nothing. Cold and warm. Together and alone. And everything in between, all at the same time”, Granny Five continued. 

She pointed up. “Do you see the stars? The endless space between them? That’s what we are all made of. Before the beginning of time, before anything even existed, we were all one. And we still are, scattered throughout the galaxies.”

“However, at the beginning there was more than one. Another one was there too. The Solitract. A whole separate universe, an individual consciousness. A being, like you and me. One day…”

As Granny Five told the story of the Solitract, her hands moving slowly along with the story, illustrating each turn of events, each new twist and equation, the Doctor slowly slid lower and lower onto the mattress. They yawned, their small hands running over the soft fabric of their pajamas over and over and over. 

“… and so it can never join us. Everything, the stars, the night, the planets, your sisters, we’d all be gone. The Solitract is far too brilliant to be contained by this universe.”

“So the Solitract is all alone? Won’t they get sad?”, the Doctor asked, already half asleep. Just then, the bedroom door opened with a soft click. 

“Oh, I imagine it’s very hard being the Solitract”, Granny Two replied as she stepped into the bedroom. 

“I hope they’re not too sad”, the Doctor mumbled into their pillow. Granny Two tucked the blankets tightly around the Doctor, folding it up under their feet and securing the sides. 

“I believe I promised you a lullaby, little one”, she whispered, gently tapping her grandchild’s nose. She pushed a strand of carrot red hair behind her ear and started humming low, a lonely melody from far beyond the ocean and the skies. A warm breeze filled the room. Granny Five reached out for her wife’s hand. 

In that moment, with their grandchildren asleep between them, the universe was whole.


End file.
